Chapter 10 - THE DON’S IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE|
Marcos found Nadia waiting in his office at midnight.
She had entered through the private elevator, escorted by Gabriel, and stood beside the window with a sealed envelope in her hand. Her face was pale, and the bandage beneath her jacket had begun to show through the fabric.
“You look terrible,” Marcos said.
“So do you.”
He closed the office door.
“Your father is alive. He’s being treated at a private clinic. No one is allowed near him without my authorization.”
“Why are you protecting him?”
“Because someone is using him to control you.”
“Perhaps he deserves it.”
Marcos did not argue.
Nadia placed the envelope on his desk.
“This contains evidence that Isabel sold my brother’s location. It also connects your company to payments you say you never authorized.”
“I believe you.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“I’m beginning to think that trusting nobody is the easiest way to become the person everyone fears.”
She studied him.
“Is that what you are?”
“Sometimes.”
“At least you’re honest.”
“Not always.”
He opened the envelope carefully. Inside were copies of the original transfer records, a handwritten note from Cristian, and a list of dates that corresponded to shipments leaving Terminal Twelve.
Marcos read the documents twice.
Then he sat down.
“My father used that terminal.”
Nadia frowned.
“Your father died eleven years ago.”
“He ran Vega Maritime before me. He built the business with men who believed the law was something you negotiated with after making money.”
“And you inherited it.”
“I inherited the company. I didn’t inherit every secret.”
Marcos took a breath.
“Three weeks before he died, he told me he wanted to cut ties with the Carrera family. He said they had become dangerous. I thought he was talking about a business dispute.”
“Did he mention Cristian?”
“No.”
“Did he mention a ledger?”
Marcos looked up.
“What ledger?”
Nadia pointed to a notation in the documents.
The initials R.V. appeared beside a reference to a ledger kept in a private archive.
Marcos recognized the handwriting.
His father’s.
“I’ve seen that mark before,” he said. “On the back of an old photograph in his study.”
“Where is the photograph?”
“Locked in my family home.”
“Then we go there.”
Marcos shook his head.
“It’s not that simple. My family home is watched by people who answer to my uncle.”
“Your uncle?”
“Rafael Vega. He handles the parts of the business I prefer not to discuss.”
Nadia’s gaze sharpened.
“Could he have authorized the payments?”
“Yes.”
“Could he have helped Isabel?”
“Yes.”
“Could he have been involved in my brother’s death?”
Marcos stared at the papers.
“I don’t know.”
Nadia gathered the documents.
“Then find out.”
He looked at her injured side.
“You’re not going anywhere until a doctor clears you.”
“You don’t get to give me orders.”
“I’m not ordering you. I’m asking you not to get yourself killed.”
“Why?”
The question came out more sharply than she intended.
Marcos stood.
“Because if you’re right, Cristian died trying to expose a system that my family helped build. I won’t let his sister die because I was too afraid to look at it.”
Nadia held his gaze.
For the first time, she saw something other than calculation in his face.
It was not love.
It was not trust.
May you like
It was the beginning of responsibility.
And that, she suspected, could be more dangerous than either.
